Open Access Political Science

Pilot Project for the Open Access Transformation of E-Books

The pilot project "transcript OPEN library Politikwissenschaft" marks a further milestone in the
current transformation towards ever more Open Access content. The pilot has been launched jointly
by the "Nationalen Open-Access-Kontaktpunkt OA2020-DE" and "transcript Independent Academic
Publishing".Click here to view all of the titles which will be made available Open Access. You can also see the full
collection on OAPEN.

The Consortial Solution: Supporting a wide-spread transformation to Open Access

The pilot invites academic libraries to help take collaborative measures in the move towards Open
Access.
The ongoing elimination of paywalls will only be sustainable if large quantities of content are
made available by subject area. By using a consortial model it will be possible to achieve the
necessary funding for full subject collections.
The complete frontlist of 2019 titles (i.e. all new titles
in the field of Political Science) will be bundled into one package, very similar to the established
practice of “eBook collections”. Rather than individual libraries purchasing eBook licences, the
crowdfunding model means that libraries collectively finance the full frontlist production being made
available in Open Access.

Hence library budgets will be used to fund free access for users all around the world, rather than just
purchasing paywalled eBooks library by library.

From Acquisitions to Enabling

Open Access allows libraries to position themselves as “enablers”. Their role is no longer just about
purchasing books and journals, or about licensing content for the institution. If researchers,
publishers and libraries are able to work together as partners then a new culture within publishing
will be the result.

For the pilot to be successful, a minimum of 20 participating libraries are required to support the
crowdfunding model. The costs of publishing the books will be supplemented by a subsidy from the
author, and funding from libraries will help cover the publication costs and reduced publishing
margins.

The actual cost to libraries to support the model will depend very much upon the number of
participating institutions. The “Fachinformationsdienst (FID) Politikwissenschaft“ at the State and
University Library Bremen has already agreed to finance 50% of the project, which means that half
of the funding has already been secured.

In order to help libraries with their budget planning, a minimum requirement of 20 participating
libraries has been set in order for the remaining 50% funding to be reached. The actual cost per
library will be dependent on the number of participants and will decrease accordingly depending on
how many libraries agree to support the project. Should the minimum requirement not be reached,
no libraries will be invoiced and the frontlist content will not be made available as Open Access.

Please contact us directly for for further information regarding costs and invoicing.

The “transcript OPEN library Politikwissenschaft“ is currently running as a pilot and is intended to go
on for a period of one year. With your support, the goal is to establish a long-term model which is
beneficial to both libraries and publishers in equal measure, and which will be sustainable and
transparent for all. Further opportunities in other subject areas would then be possible, making
quality-assured content from a variety of publishers freely available. The long-term goal is that the
OA consortial model should completely cover all publication costs, thereby reducing the spending of
participating libraries compared with traditional acquisition.

Smaller institutions are also able to participate in the consortial model and Universities of Applied
Sciences (German “Fachhochschulen”) can take advantage of the special offer “Sponsoring Light”.
Participating institutions in this category will receive 50% discount on the regular price. In return the
discount on print books for supporters will also be reduced by half, and participating institutions will
be listed as “Enablers” purely in the list of sponsoring libraries. Universities of Applied Sciences are
of course free to participate at the regular terms if they so wish.